On the run, I felt pretty sluggish and it took me a while to get into it. In fact it took me all the way to the last mile or so before I felt good. Man, just no energy this morning... seems like a trend in my running this week.
It was still worth getting out though as it was beautiful and warm. As a bonus to the amazingly good weather, I saw some wildlife in a rabbit and some deer. Cool. I haven't seen any animals besides birds while running in quite a few months.
Running Log
Yesterday: 0 miles
Today: 7 miles in 1:10 on the mesa and 2 miles running to work and back home
Week total: 36 miles (knee still feels great so I think I'll continue to add more miles each week and maybe I'll be able to add some faster runs in there soon (icy trails and knee willing))
Oh yeah... I had a conversation with a fellow Flagstaff runner yesterday (identity not posted to protect me more than him...) about running in the canyon and he knew some pretty darn fast people so I was wondering what his take was on the 1 hr 8 min ascent of the S. Kaibab trail that I read about recently. I was interested in if he thought that was fast or not and if he knew anyone who had done it faster.
He responded that he didn't think that was all that fast for the mileage and the elevation gain. He said that his brother had probably done it that fast and so he texted his brother about it to see what he had to say. His brother responded pretty much the same except that he added that a 1 hr 8 min ascent of the S. Kaibab wasn't anything to brag about and that people shouldn't think that is a very fast time. WOW! Either these are misguided words or I need to reevaluate who my running hero's are. Damn.... I want to know who these people are that can run the S. Kaibab so fast...or he is blowing hot air up my you know what.
He then went on to claim that people have run the R2R2R faster that the record and just haven't bothered to tell anyone! I have heard the claim before but no one has come up with any names of people that have done it. You would think that in this day and age of the internet, texting, tweeting and all that some one would blabber about their friend breaking the record and it would get around. Hmmmmm.....
Some conversation. I'm sure that this is boooooooring to most people but I love talking nerdy running stuff about the canyon and this conversation kind of blew me away.
Ran it faster than Dave and just didn't bother to tell anyone? Suuuuuure. That was, uh, me, and stuff. I did it in 2.5 hours flat. Didn't even try that hard.
ReplyDeleteHmmmmm.... is right. Not saying that it is not possible, just improbable. Some of the guys posting/claiming FKTs in the Grand Canyon are some of the best runners in the country, if not the world on the right day. If some of these unknown guys are indeed that fast, they should certainly throw their hat into some of the big time races. There is a always somebody faster coming along and if this is the case, give them the nudge to make themselves known!
ReplyDeleteI work in a cafeteria at the South Rim, and have seen guests that claim to have just done the R2R2R in a faster time then I could ever dream of.
ReplyDeleteIf a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it...
ReplyDeleteI'll be running it in April (NOT faster than 6:59). I'll be happy to personally document any record attempt from these super fast guys who have no internet connection or cameras.
I'm with you guys. I don't really buy the story of someone running r2r2r faster than Mackey and not reporting it. I personally think that anyone that can run it fast enough to beat the record would tell someone about it.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that there are guys that could smash it if they stopped running marathons and got into ultras but these guys tend to run for money and there is no money in beating the record for r2r2r and if they did give it a go I think we would hear about it so... Mackey's record stands in my mind.
I think that the local runners comment I blogged is rooted in the track and road runners having big egos about how they think they are fast and ultra runners are slow and they like to blow off ultra runners as second rate and not good enough. They think that ulta runners only do it because they aren't good enough to compete in track and road races. That is the sense I get... Pretty lame. I think they should get over them selves,
Jason, your first point was what I was really getting at, that, if somebody were out there doing it that fast, word would get out. They would tell at least one friend (like the person telling you, and they would tell somebody who would blog about it, etc....), but word would eventually get out (maybe it is right now??).
ReplyDeleteI'm not particularly fast, but I stick to the trails because I LOVE trails and avoid track and road because it is very boring to me and I think that is the case for pretty much the majority of my trailrunning/mountainrunning/ultrarunning friends, not because they couldn't make it on the road or track. Everyone has their thing.
If I ever ran faster than Mackey, I'd lease the Goodyear blimp for a week and fly around Boulder displaying the result. Needless to say, I'll never run faster than Mackey and never have enough money to lease the blimp, so I'll just shut up now.
ReplyDelete